The Companion Guide to Gascony and the Dordogne (Companion Guides)

352 Pages·2002·5.59 MB·English

by  Richard Barber

title
:
The Companion Guide to Gascony and the Dordogne Companion Guides
author
:
Barber, Richard W.
publisher
:
Companion Guides
isbn10 | asin
:
1900639270
print isbn13
:
9781900639279
ebook isbn13
:
9780585182193
language
:
English
subject
Dordogne River Valley (France)--Guidebooks, Gascony (France)--
Guidebooks.
publication date
:
1999
lcc
:
DC611.B66B37 1999eb
ddc
:
914.47204839
subject
:
Dordogne River Valley (France)--Guidebooks, Gascony (France)--
Guidebooks.
The Companion Guide to Gascony and the Dordogne

THE COMPANION GUIDES
It is the aim of these guides to provide a Companion in the person of the
author, who knows intimately the places and people of whom he writes, and is
able to communicate this knowledge and affection to his readers. It is hoped that
the text and pictures will aid them in their preparations and in their travels, and
will help them remember on their return.
BURGUNDY · THE COUNTRY ROUND PARIS DEVON ·
EDINBURGH AND THE BORDER COUNTRY FLORENCE · GREEK
ISLANDS LAKE DISTRICT · LONDON MADRID AND CENTRAL SPAIN
MAINLAND GREECE · NEW YORK ROME · SICILY · SOUTH OF
FRANCE VENICE
In preparation
KENT AND SUSSEX · PARIS

The Companion Guide to Gascony and the Dordogne
Richard Barber
COMPANION GUIDES

Copyright © Richard Barber, 1977, 1991, 1999
All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation no part of
this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed
in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or
by any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owner
First published 1977 as
The Companion Guide to South-West France
Revised edition 1991
Reissued 1996
Companion Guides, Woodbridge
New edition 1999
ISBN 1 900639 27 0
The publishers and author have done their best to ensure the accuracy and
currency of all the information in The Companion Guide to Gascony and the
Dordogne. However, they can accept no responsibility for any loss, injury, or
inconvenience sustained by any traveller as a result of information or advice
contained in the guide.
Companion Guides is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
and of Boydell & Brewer Inc.
PO Box 41026, Rochester, NY 14604-4126, USA
website: http://www.boydell.co.uk
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
Printed in Great Britain by
St Edmundsbury Press Ltd, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

Contents
List of illustrations
vi
Maps and plans
viii
Preface
ix
Acknowledgements
xiii
1. Poitiers
1
2. South-East Poitou
23
3. South-West Poitou and Aunis
35
4. Saintonge and the Ile d'Oléron
50
5. Cognac
76
6. Bordeaux
93
7. The Médoc and the wines of south-west France
112
8. Angoulême and the Angoumois
126
9. Limoges and the Limousin
141
10. Périgueux and Western Périgord
164
11. Les Eyzies and the Vézère Valley
176
12. The Dordogne Valley: Beaulieu to Sarlat
192
13. The Dordogne Valley: Sarlat to Bergerac
213
14. Quercy
232
15. The Pays d'Albret, Agen and Moissac
243
16. The Gers and Pau
267
17. Bayonne to Bordeaux: the Landes
279
18. Western Guyenne
291
Appendix 1. Food
313
Appendix 2. Bibliography
315
Appendix 3. Opening Hours
318
Index
327

List of Illustrations
1
Poitiers Cathedral Façade (French Government Tourist Office FGTO)
14
2
Poitiers Palais de Justice (Belzeaux-Zodiaque)
14
3
Poitiers Capital, Eglise de St Hilaire (Belzeaux-Zodiaque)
15
4
Poitiers Cathedral stained glass (Author)
15
5
Chauvigny Eglise de St Pierre (FGTO)
15
6
St Savin-sur-Gartempe (FGTO)
45
7
La Cotinière, Ile d'Oléron (FGTO)
45
8
Aulnay Eglise de St Pierre (FGTO)
46
9
Saintes Roman arch (FGTO)
63
10
Talmont, near Blaye (FGTO)
63
11
Fenioux the lanterne des morts (Belzeaux-Zodiaque)
64
12
Lusignan the château (miniature from the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry:
Musée Condé, Chantilly: photo Giraudon)
65
13
La Roche-Courbon the château (FGTO)
66
14
The tomb of St Junien (Belzeaux-Zodiaque)
83
15
St Michel d'Entraygues near Angoulême tympanum (Belzeaux-Zodiaque)
83
16
Angoulême the Cathedral (FGTO)
84
17
Bordeaux the Bourse (FGTO)
84
18
Médoc landscape (FGTO)
117
19
Wine labels (Sotheby and Co)
117
20
Hautefort the château (FGTO)
118
21
Rochechouart the château (FGTO)
118

22
Cressac, near Barbezieux fresco (Archives photographiques, Paris)
151
23
Limoges porcelain (FGTO)
151
24
St Léon-sur-Vézère (Zodiaque)
152
25
Fourneau du Diable carving (Musée des Eyzies: FGTO)
185
26
Lascaux cave paintings (FGTO)
185
27
Rocamadour (A. F. Kersting)
186
28
The portal at Souillac (Zodiaque)
203
29
and 30 Beynac two views of the château (FGTO)
204
31
Monpazier the market square (FGTO)
205
32
Château de Montal, interior (FGTO)
205
33
Cahors the pont Valentré (FGTO)
206
34
Cahors Cathedral north door (Dieuzaide-Zodiaque)
206
35
Moissac south door (Dieuzaide-Zodiaque)
256-7
36
Sarlat (FGTO)
258
37
Pau the old quarter (FGTO)
258
38
Moirax, near Agen capital in the church (Zodiaque)
259
39
Auch Cathedral choir stalls (FGTO)
259

List of Maps
Poitiers
4
Map 1: Poitou
24-25
Charroux: Abbaye St Sauveur
30
La Rochelle
42
Map 2: Saintonge
51
Map 3: Cognac
77
Bordeaux
94
Map 4: The Médoc
113
Map 5: The Angoumois
127
Angoulême
139
Map 6: Limoges and the Limousin
142
Map 7: The Dordogne Valley
178-9
Map 8: The Dordogne and the Lot valley
214
Map 9: The Pays d'Albret, Agen and Moissac
244
Agen
249
Map 10: The Gers
268
Pau
277
Map 11: The Atlantic Coast: Bayonne to Bordeaux
280
Bayonne
287
Map 12: Western Guyenne
292

Preface
The south-west of France offers as much variety as any ordinary traveller
could wish for; its monuments and remains range from darkest pre-history at Les
Eyzies to post-war architecture at Royan, its landscapes from the smiling green
of the Dordogne valley to the empty expanses of the Landes coast, its cooking
from the seafood of the Atlantic to the country produce of the Périgord. But
certain characteristics predominate the countryside and country towns, the
castles and churches, the river valleys and villages. The seeker after the baroque
or after fashionable cities or resorts must go elsewhere. South-west France has
changed relatively little since the end of the Middle Ages: a static population, no
great industrial revolution, a pattern of farming that has remained much the
same.
Many visitors will be content to enjoy the douceur de vivre, the good food
and the pleasures of the countryside, without going to a single castle or church.
But there is a great deal more. For the English traveller who is interested in the
past this is a very special terrain indeed: much of England's history between
1154 and 1453 was determined by what happened in Aquitaine, in the long
drawn-out struggle for the remains of the Continental empire created by Henry
II. This is the land of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the scene of Richard I's death, of the
Black Prince's triumphs and disasters. It is also the landscape in which some of
the greatest medieval poetry and architecture was created. Here many of the
troubadours lived, and here still stand Romanesque churches with luxuriant
carved doorways or simple elegant interiors. Like the landscape itself, the art of
the region is intimate rather than grandiose, and speaks to us all the more
directly for its lack of rhetoric.
These characteristics medieval history and architecture are my own
particular interests, and I make no apology for including a good deal of medieval
history: this is a region where the Middle Ages are still very much in evidence,
and the why and wherefore of such things as bastides takes us back, if we are to
begin to understand what we are looking at, straight to the fourteenth century.
Beyond

the Middle Ages the region has less to offer, but I hope that I have done it
justice. Of all the French provinces, those of the south-west suffered most from
the religious wars of the sixteenth century and from the predominance of Paris
from the seventeenth century on. Bordeaux in the late eighteenth century
recaptured something of its old prestige and splendour, but otherwise there is
little to show. True, a handful of great figures stand out, but as isolated,
individual geniuses Montaigne, La Rochefoucauld, Montesquieu; and in the
nineteenth century the somnolences aquitaines take over. Only in the past three
decades has the economic and social life of the region regained its vigour.
Beyond the history and the monuments, I have tried to outline briefly
something of the scenery, which is one of the glories of the region; but I make no